The latest cryptocurrency regulations in Asia are wins for Bitcoin adoption but come at the cost of privacy. South Korea is tightening cryptocurrency regulations while India will likely lift its 2018 ban giving cryptocurrency companies bank accounts.
Meanwhile, an American lawmaker has proposed a new bill that follows suit but is not expected to pass.
India — Central Bank Overruled
India’s supreme court has overruled the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s 2018 ban that prevented banks within the country from working with cryptocurrency-related businesses. Sunny Ray, the global head of business development for cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and previous founder of the first regulated cryptocurrency exchange in India, described the significance in a blog post[1].
“This is an incredibly emotional moment for India,” Ray wrote. “Satoshi created Bitcoin because he felt that central banks were inefficient. The fact that the crypto industry just battled, and won, against the central bank located in the second-most populous country in the world is a massive achievement. We fought for 1.5 billion people to have the right to access crypto.”
Ray’s comments are not overblown. The Indian Supreme Court’s 180-page ruling[2] boils down to a limit on the RBI’s power, by acknowledging how disproportionate the ban is for dealing with the often purported risks of cryptocurrency — enabling money laundering and terrorist financing. The court acknowledged that rather than prevent these risks, outright prohibition could have even exacerbated the problem by driving illicit activity underground. Though legislation will take time, reversing the ban means the Indian government will regulate cryptocurrency businesses with AML/CFT controls.
Although it’s easy to imagine what the RBI’s real intentions for such a disproportionate ban actually were, this overruling is a win for Bitcoin adoption and a limit on consumer privacy.
Despite the overrule, India’s
